How new choreographers get the chance of a lifetime to create and a stage to see it bloom

Cincinnati Ballet company members in a recent rehearsal for choreographer Myles Thatcher’s “Anomaly.” The work will be seen as part of the company’s “Kaplan New Works Series,” running Sept. 13-23 in the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater.(Photo: Jennifer Denham/Provided)

To be honest, Morgan is nearly always psyched about the things her company does. That’s only natural, since she’s the one who gives the company’s creative endeavors the go-ahead.

But in this case, she’s a little more psyched than usual. The company’s Choreographic Workshop is one of Morgan’s pet projects. Here’s how it works. Every year, she invites the company’s dancers to come up with an idea for a new 15-20-minute ballet. If their concepts are strong enough, they get the go-ahead to work with members of the Cincinnati Ballet’s second company to actually create a portion of the work. Finally, near the end of the season, there would be a studio performance of all the new works.

It was one of those win-win arrangements. For young but ambitious choreographers, they are given the three things that are hardest to come by – dancers, rehearsal space and time to create. And for second company members, it was a boon because they had a chance to participate in the creation of a new work.

When Morgan announced the Workshop at the beginning of last season, she upped the ante a bit. Two of the works from the Choreographic Workshop would be performed as part of the season-opening Kaplan New Works Series, which runs Sept. 13-23 at the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater.

“I’m so, so excited,” says Taylor Carrasco, one of the two dancers whose works were selected for the series. “And I’m so honored. This is a huge opportunity.”

But what exactly is the opportunity? It’s not like the company is paying the dancers huge choreographic fees. True, Carrasco and fellow company member David Morse will share a program with a trio of choreographic heavyweights; Mia Michaels (“So You Think You Can Dance”), Miles Thatcher (San Francisco Ballet) and Cincinnati Ballet resident choreographer Jennifer Archibald.

Cincinnati Ballet company members performing choreographer Travis Wall’s “Then…Now” as part of the 2017 “Kaplan New Works Series.” This year’s series runs Sept 13-23 in the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater.(Photo: Peter Mueller/Provided)

What the program does bring to Carrasco and Morse is an enormous opportunity for artistic exploration.

“When you are a dancer, you put another choreographer’s movements through your own filter,” says Carrasco. “But you are still being told to interpret someone else’s movement. But with something like this, the movement is purely my own. It’s a little more nerve-wracking, too. But to me, it’s worth it.”

It’s worth it for the audience, too. Some of the thrill is in seeing something new and unexpected. But it’s also a chance to see new company members. And to see how the current members have developed after a busy summer of working with teachers and choreographers during Cincinnati Ballet’s four-month break.

Remember, most of these dancers are still relatively young. They are still refining their crafts as dancers. Sometimes “New Works” reveals an entirely new side of a company member.

David Morse has been choreographing since he was 11 and a student in the school of the Charlotte Ballet.

“I’m a musician, too,” says Morse. During last year’s “New Works,” in fact, he danced and played piano in one of the ballets. “So the idea of being able to take different musical lines in a score and represent them with bodies was always something I always found really, really interesting. It was like I was getting to access an additional dimension.”

Taylor Carrasco, a member of the Cincinnati Ballet’s corps de ballet, is one of two company members selected to create world premiere ballets for the company’s upcoming “Kaplan New Work Series,” running Sept. 13-23 in the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater. Here, he is seen performing a work choreographed by Heather Britt for the 2017 “Kaplan New Works Series.”(Photo: Peter J. Mueller/Provided)

Before he came to Cincinnati Ballet in 2016, Morse participated in a pair of the New York City Ballet’s choreographic institutes.

“You’re given all the tools – time, studio space and really high-level dancers,” says Morse. Best of all is that they manage to create a low-pressure, low-stress situation for the participants. “The goal is not the product. The goal is the process. Usually, when you’re making choreography, everything is driven by the date of the premiere.”

That’s exactly the case here, too. But since last spring’s workshop was something of a trial run, neither choreographer is panicked by the approach of opening night.

“I’ve only been here for three years,” says Morse, whose wife and fellow company member, Christina LaForgia Morse, arrived here two years earlier. “It has worked out well for both of us, which is so rare in this profession. Usually, it works out well for one person but not the other. We’re lucky that we both get to do a lot here.”

For her part, Morgan is delighted with the results from both choreographers.
“David’s craft is so clear and so well-developed,” says Morgan. “And, of course, he is amazingly musical. And Taylor is such a good storyteller. His ballet is so spontaneous and so . . . “

She pauses for a moment, not able to find the perfect word. Finally, she finds it. “It’s so quirky and so funny. We have such a hard time including humor in ballet. We’re so serious. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t find the right word. All I know is that I can’t wait to see both of these ballets.”